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Friday, 15 July 2011

A change of plan…

A certain amount of faffing took place today. Mike and Humphrey left by 10am and I spent the morning updating the blog and planning the next week ahead. I must admit, it isn’t looking good on the weather front. Fiesch, where I will be by Sunday, looks like it will be heavy showers right up until I leave a week later.

With the glacier hike now off, due to the disastrous currency exchange meaning it would cost me a small fortune, I also cancelled my hostel booking in Interlaken as the forecast isn’t much good for the Bernese Oberland region and little point in me staying a night there.

So, once I have been to the Montreux Jazz Festival on Saturday, the walking options are up in the air. I have five new routes in mind, close to Fiesch, some low level valley which should be possible in the rain, and a couple of higher climbs should the forecast be wrong.

I finally left the hostel about midday, and went into town for a visit to the Matterhorn Museum and lunch. By about 2pm I was contemplating a return to the hostel, but as I strolled through the cemetery looking at the graves of fallen climbers, the weather perked up and so I decided to catch the cable car to Schwarsee.

By the time I had reached the station, my mind had changed again and I opted for the Glacier Paradise, perched at 3883 metres on the top of the Kleine Matterhorn for views of Breithorn (above), and the glaciers. You also get a different perspective of the Matterhorn and the Hornli ridge.

Travelling there by the highest cable car system in Europe, it is worth the fifty minute each way trip if you get a half price discount with your Swiss Pass.

This was the highest I have been outside of Nepal, but this was a lot easier to reach!

Once outside, where summer skiing is possible, you can see across to the Italian Alps and Mont Blanc (above) is obvious on the horizon. Unfortunately, the main viewing platform was shut because of a flood, but this did little to spoil the trip.

On the return journey, the Matterhorn was cloud free for the first time n a few days, and it was a beautiful final day for me in Zermatt.

Back to the hostel for dinner and to see if I had new room mates who might just fancy a trip to the Brown Cow later.

First things first though, packing to be done for a quick getaway tomorrow. Montreux and Deep Purple await!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Buck is a backpacker and Social Hiker, who loves to walk for fun and for good causes. Currently visiting all the tors of Dartmoor, accounts of that challenge can be found at moorlandwalks.co.uk. Adventures further afield are right here.